RSB on Tour: Tokorozawa

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2017. He has meanwhile extended his contract until 2027. In parallel, he has been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

After receiving training at the Moscow Conservatory The conductor, pianist and musicologist Vladimir Jurowski emigrated to Germany in 1990. Here he continued his studies at the music conservatories in Dresden and Berlin.  In 1995 he made his international debut at the British Wexford Festival with Rimski-Korsakov’s Mainacht and in the same year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Nabucco. Subsequently he was, among other things, First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997- 2001) and Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001-2013). In 2003 Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has been its Principal Conductor since 2007 until 2021. He was also Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov of the Russian Federation until 2021, Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain. He works regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the ensemble unitedberlin.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

He is a recurring guest conductor in in London, Berlin, Dresden, Luzern, Schleswig-Holstein und Grafenegg as well as at the Rostopowitsch-Festival. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, in future he would like to concentrate his activities on that geographical area which is acceptable to him from an ecological point of view.

Described by The Observer as the ​“definition of virtuosity” Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii (Nobu), who has been blind from birth, won the joint Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009 and has gone on to earn an international reputation for the passion and excitement he brings to his live performances.

Nobu’s 2023/24 season opened with a sold-out appearance at Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms with Domingo Hindoyan and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, one of several collaborations with RLPO that saw Nobu perform with them again in Liverpool and on tour in Japan in Spring 2024. Other collaborations as concerto soloist included Hong Kong Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, and Macau Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist, Nobu also returned to Théâtre des Champs Elysées and the Tsinandali Festival, in addition to numerous solo and concerto appearances across his native Japan including a tour with Klaus Mäkelä conducting Oslo Philharmonic.

Earlier seasons have seen Nobu appear in concert with leading orchestras worldwide including Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl, Philharmonia Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Seattle and Baltimore symphony orchestras, Münchner Philharmoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, Tonkünstler-Orchester at Wiener Musikverein, Sinfonieorchester Basel, and Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. Notable past collaborations also include the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg under Kent Nagano, Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover under Andrew Manze, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko, and the BBC Philharmonic under Juanjo Mena. Nobu’s appearances as a recitalist have included performances at prestigious venues worldwide such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and Royal Albert Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, and Singapore Esplanade.

An exclusive recording artist for Avex Classics International, Nobu’s growing album catalogue encompasses the breadth of the piano concerto repertoire. It currently includes Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2 with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Variations on a theme of Paganini under Vasily Petrenko with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Yutaka Sado and BBC Philharmonic, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Nobu has also recorded several recital programmes of Chopin, Mozart, Debussy, and Liszt.

A live DVD recording of Nobu’s 2011 Carnegie Hall recital was named DVD of the Month by Gramophone, as was his latest DVD release, Touching the Sound — The Improbable Journey of Nobuyuki Tsujii, a documentary film by Peter Rosen.

Nobu’s international tours are supported by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and he gratefully acknowledges their assistance.